
Class. 
Book. 



% S*<? S~ 



, $£ 



SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT. 



v' 



5 T- *- 

G 




UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING 

Agricultural College Department. 



WYOMING EXPERIMENT STATION, 

LARAMIE, WYOMING. 



BUL.L.ETIN INTO. 39, 
DECEMBER, 1898. 



ALKALI STUDIES, II. 



BY E. E. SLOSSON AND B. C. BUFFUM. 



Bulletins will be sent free upon request. Address : Director Experiment 
Station, Laramie, Wyo. , 



— (lo) 






Monograph 



<0 




icultural EwiMt 






UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING. 



BOARD OF TRUSTEES. 

Hon. OTTO GRAMM, President, Laramie 1903 

GRACE RAYMOND HEBARD, B. S., Ph. D., Secretary, Cheyenne . 1903 

HENRY L. STEVENS, B. S., M. D., Laramie 1903 

Hon. TIMOTHY F. BURKE, LL. B., Vice President, Cheyenne.. 1901 

Hon. JOHN C. DAVIS, Treasurer, Rawlins 1901 

Hon. NATHAN S. BRISTOL, Casper 1899 

Hon. MELVILLE C. BROWN, Laramie 1899 

Prof. JAMES O. CHURCHILL, M. A., Cheyenne 1899 

Hon. JAMES A. McAVOY, Lander. 1899 

State Supt. of Public Instructkn Hon. CARROLL H. PAR- 
MELEE, M. A., LL. B Ex-Officio 

President ELMER E. SMILEY, B. A., B. D, Ex-Officio 

Agricultural Committee of the Board of Trustees. 

H. L. STEVENS, Chairmac Laramie 

OTTO GRAMM Laramie 

M. C. BROWN Laramie 



President of the University of Wyoming. 
ELMER E. SMILEY, B. A., B. D, 



Station Council. 
ELMER E. SMILEY, B. A., B. D, Director 

B. C. BUFFUM, M. S., Vice Director, Agriculturist and Horticulturist 

A. NELSON, M. S. M. A , Botanist 

E. E. SLOSSON, M. S,...? ?.\.l Chemist 

W. C. KNIGHT, MA uV.'. Geologist 

C. B. RIDGAWAY, M. A Physicist and Meteorologist 

G. R. HEBARD, M. A., Ph. D Secretary 



Superintendents. 
W. H. FAIRFIELD, M. S. ..Wyoming University Experiment Farm 
The Horticulturist in Charge, 

Wyoming University Experiment Grounds 



Alkali Investigations. 



E. E. SLOSSON. 



THE CHARACTER OF WYOMING ALKALI. 

The Experiment Stations are supported for the purpose 
of scientific research in the problems of agriculture and they 
are located in different states in order that each station may 
study, at close range, the conditions of the region that sur- 
rounds it. From its location the chief problem of the Wyo- 
ming Station has been given to it by nature, the study of ari- 
dity, and as fast as possible the work of the Station has been 
concentrated on this subject.* 

The chief difficulties in the way of agriculture in the 
arid region are two, the insufficient supply of water and the 
accumulation of soluble salts, known as alkali. The second 
of the these is a consequence of the first. Where watering- 
is done by rain, pure water is added to the soil and drained 
off underneath, carrying with it the soluble salts of the soil. 
In irrigation, water containing salts is added to the soil and 
pure water evaporated from the surface. It was shown in 
Bulletin No. 24 that half a ton of alkali was added to each 
acre of the Sheridan Farm every year by irrigation and the 
land became completely useless until it was drained. 

Samples of alkali from all parts of the State have been 
analyzed and the complete analysis will be published in the 
next annual report. It will be sufficient to give here the 

*For a summary of the publications of the Station on this subject, see Eighth Annual Re- 
port, 1898. pages 15-50. 



«>s 



36 Wyoming Experiment Station. 

general result. Almost all the alkali of the State consists 
of three salts in varying proportions, sodium sulphate 
(Glauber's salt), magnesium sulphate (Epsom salt) and so- 
dium chloride (common salt). The "black alkali," sodium 
carbonate, is fortunately very rare as it is much more in- 
jurious than the other salts. Analysis of the soils of the 
State shows that the percent of soluble salts or alkali is us- 
ually small, often extremely so, and it is only its accumula- 
tion at the surface that causes damage. On the other hand 
the small amount of water in the soil makes the alkali more 
injurious than if more diluted, for it must be remembered 
that it is not the total quantity of alkali in the soil but the 
strength of the alkali solution that is of importance. For 
example, if the soil contains 10% of water about 3% of com- 
mon salt is required to form a saturated solution, but if 
there is only 5% of water half that amount of salt will pro- 
duce the same effect and any larger amount is no worse. On 
unirrigated land the water content is mostly between these 
limits. (Bulletin No. 35.) 

In many parts of the state the alkali salts are not mixed 
together and distributed through the soil, but are collected 
in large beds of single salts often very pure. Near Laramie 
there are beds of sodium sulphate, near Rock Creek of mag- 
nesium sulphate and near Green Eiver of sodium carbonate 
(sal soda) of many acres in extent and several feet in thick- 
ness. Many theories have been advanced as to the origin of 
these "alkali lakes," mostly based on the assumption that 
they must have been made from the decomposition of rocks 
containing the same salts. Since there are no rocks in the 
vicinity whose products of decomposition at all resemble 
the alkali, the advocates of this theory have been obliged 
to construct hypothetical rocks for the purpose. If, how- 
ever, we remember that the salts deposited from solution 
depend on the proportions, temperature and concentration,- 
and need not be at all the same as the salts dissolved, we 



Alkali Studies, II. 37 

can account for the alkali beds without taking into consid- 
eration the origin of the salts. It is enough for us to know 
that all the spring and river waters of the state contain the 
necessary elements and the problem is merely to separate 
them into the forms that are actually found. 

The salts in the alkali lakes can not be regarded as of 
any certain composition. They become liquid, that is dis- 
solve in their water of crystallization on a warm day or are 
dissolved by the addition of rain water and when deposited 
by cooling or evaporation it would be very improbable that 
the same forms should reappear in the original proportion. 
Then too the addition of drainage water containing more 
salts must change the equilibrium and cause a rearrange- 
ment to form new salts. This may account in part for the 
widely variant analyses that have been published, and ob- 
servations at different seasons of the year show startling 
changes. Sometimes the lake is fluid, at others solid. Some- 
times it is a bed of large clear crystals of sodium sulphate 
decahvdrate; sometimes the w T hite anhvdrous sodium sul- 
phate covers the surface. The phenomena can be watched 
very prettily by dissolving the salts in a beaker of water in 
such proportions and concentrations as to be in unstable 
equilibrium. If the temperature of the room varies consid- 
erably the form, size and composition of the crystals will 
often be very different. 

The salts contained in natural alkali are remarkable 
for the number of their phases. We have in the natural 
waters of the State from which the alkali is deposited, the 
bases sodium, calcium and magnesium, and the acids car- 
bonic, sulphuric and hydrochloric. There are also some- 
times present the bases potassium, aluminum, iron and 
lithium, and the acids nitric, boric, silicic, phosphoric and 
reduced sulphuric acids, but only in such small quantities 
that they do not play any important part in the formation 



38 Wyoming Experiment Station. 

of the alkali deposits. Evaporation of a solution contain- 
ing- the above six factors might form nine simple salts and 
a great number of double salts and hydrates, besides me- 
chanical mixtures, of all these in any proportion. 

It would be impossible to prove what the conditions 
were under which beds of pure salts like the Wyoming al- 
kali lakes were found, because the concentrations, propor- 
tions and temperatures at the different stages of formation 
are all unknown and it is evident that theoretically the 
same result could be obtained bv many different reactions. 
Since none of the compounds are absolutely insoluble and 
since nature has unlimited time and reagents, we must re- 
gard any reaction as reversible, however completely it may 
go in one direction in the laboratory. But it is not impossi- 
ble that a consideration of the simpler reactions of these 
factors may throw some light on the probable way in which 
pure salt deposits have been formed. Starting with a solu- 
tion such as our natural waters containing the bases calci- 
um, magnesium and sodium and the acids carbonic, sul- 
phuric, and hydrochloric, the most insoluble compound pos- 
sible would be first precipitated. This is calcium carbonate 
or a mixture of calcium and magnesium carbonates forming 
beds of limestone or dolomite. Calcium carbonate is, how- 
ever, much more soluble in the presence of other salts than 
we usually think and magnesium carbonate is found in large 
amounts in water of the state containing much sodium car- 
bonate. The calcium sulphate would next be deposited in 
the form of gypsum. Beds of gypsum of great thickness 
exist in many parts of the state, as at Red Buttes, where 
plaster of Paris has been made for many years, and it is 
abundant in most of the soils. In the Laramie Plains gyp- 
sum was found at intervals in boring the University arte- 
sian well to the depth of a thousand feet. If, as is generally 
assumed, sodium was originally extracted from the rocks 
in the form of carbonate, the absence of this salt in most of 



Alkali Studies j TL 39 



the state could be accounted for bv the well known reaction 
between sodium carbonate and calcium sulphate to form 
sodium sulphate and limestone. This has been used in prac- 
tical agriculture on the advice of the California Station to 
eliminate the more injurious black alkali or carbonate. In 
parts of the state where sodium carbonate is found, as at 
Green River and Johnstown, gypsum is of course absent, or 
nearly so. 

If now we regard both the calcium and the carbonic 
acid as completely precipitated, we have left as possible 
compounds magnesium chloride and sulphate and sodium 
chloride and sulphate. Of these, magnesium chloride is by 
far the most soluble at ordinary temperatures and would 
therefore be the last salt deposited and the first washed out 
from an alkali bed. In all the alkali and waters analyzed in 
the state the sulphates are in large excess over the chlorides, 
so we may regard magnesium chloride as practically absent 
and the salts formed would be only magnesium sulphate, 
sodium sulphate and sodium chloride. Analysis shows that 
almost all of the alkali of the state consists of these three 
salts in varying proportions. There are beds of pure mag- 
nesium sulphate and sodium sulphate, but so far as I am 
aware there are no deposits of sodium chloride. Brines ex- 
ist but do not form beds. 

These three salts are about equal in solubility at ordi- 
nary temperatures and on complete evaporation would be 
deposited together, which is usually the case. But their 
relative solubility is greatly changed by a variation in 
temperature, as the sodium sulphate is much more soluble 
in warm than in cold water, while with sodium chloride 
there is little difference, so the fall in temperature in a sin- 
gle night, which is often great in the arid region and high 
altitudes, would precipitate a thick layer of crystallized sul- 
phate which would not dissolve again the next day. In 



40 Wyoming Experiment Station. 



many of the strong alkali lakes this can be observed directly. 
In cold weather the bottom is covered with a thick bed 
of pure sodium sulphate, above which is a saturated solution 
containing much chloride. In warm weather part of the 
bed goes into solution again. In winter Great Salt Lake 
throws up on the shore sodium sulphate crystals in banks 
looking like snow drifts. The magnesium sulphate beds 
might have been formed in a similar way. 

It is possible by this system of simple reactions to ex- 
plain the alkali deposits, although it is evident that they can 
be theoretically accounted for in other ways, and it is not 
necessary to assume that similar deposits have an identical 
origin. All that is intended is to show how from a dilute 
solution of many substances, such as ordinary spring or 
river water, the salts actually found could be formed and 
not the many others theoretically possible. It is not neces- 
sary to assume, as many have done, that the original rocks 
corresponded in composition to the salts left in evaporation 
of their leachings. With the conditions that prevail in Wyo- 
ming, an annual evaporation about five times as great as the 
rainfall, a porous soil and scanty vegetation, such an ac- 
cumulation and differentiation of salts is quickly accom- 
plished. One can start with a good soil and irrigate it with 
water of ordinary composition and in a few years crystals of 
pure sodium sulphate may be picked off the surface. This 
experiment has unfortunately been repeated on a great 
many acres. 

The principal source of the alkali is not, however, the 
water used in irrigation, but the beds of soluble salts that 
are deep in the soil. As soon as water is put on the land 
these salts are drawn to the surface by evaporation. The 
fact that the soils of the valleys are saturated with alkali 
ought to be taken into consideration in the proposed estab- 
lishment of reservoirs. If these are of wide extent the 



Alkali Studies, II. 41 



great evaporation of these regions would concentrate the 
water and so increase the per cent of alkali it contains. To 
this the alkali leached from the surrounding soil will be 
added and there is danger that water so stored would become 
injurious rather than beneficial to the land which received it. 



ABSORPTION OF WATER FROM ALKALI SOLUTIONS 

BY SEEDS. 

Before we can hope to do much to mitigate the injuri- 
ous effects of alkali on plants we obviously must know what 
that effect is. How does the alkali limit the plant? Al- 
though it will be many years before any complete answer 
can be given to that question, yet the study of the subject by 
the Station has cleared up some of the simpler points. For 
the simplification of the problem it was divided into two 
parts, the effect of alkali on the germination of the seed 
and its effect on the growth of the plant. Only the first part 
of the work will be made public here. 

The effect of alkali on the germination of seeds depends 
on three things, the kind of seed, the kind of alkali, and the 
concentration of the alkali solution. Sometimes the seeds 
in alkali solution are killed, sometimes they germinate but 
very slowly, sometimes they germinate more quickly as com- 
pared with those in pure water. The usual result is thai 
the seeds are delayed in germination for a long time. Now 
in Wyoming the season is too short anyway, and even a few 
days' delay will make the difference between a crop and a 
failure. 

A necessary preliminary to germination is the absorp- 
tion of water, and it seemed likely that the retarding effect 
of the alkali on the germination was due to its hindering the 
seed from absorbing the water it needed. Experiments 
showed that this was the case, and work on this line has 



4 2 



Wyoming Experiment Station. 



been carried on in the chemical laboratory for about three 
years now. The technical details will be published in the 
annual report of July next, but a table showing the results 
of one of the experiments is here given to show how such 
work is carried on. Wheat was the seed experimented upon 
in this case and an equal weight of it was put into solutions 
of the common alkalies of various strengths, pure water, and 
a solution of sugar introduced for comparison. It was 
found that the absorption of water was influenced not by 
the kind of alkali or the strength of the solution but purely 
by the osmotic pressure. Osmotic pressure is not generally 
understood and in fact is a comparatively new conception 
in science, but it is easy to explain what it means. In this 
case it simply means that the water passes through the 
little coatings in the seed openings more easily than the par- 
ticles of salt, and consequently a seed will take up water 
more rapidly if no salt is present. To give a rough illustra- 
tion, a pump supplying city water works will get more water 
through the screen of the intake pipe if the holes of the 
screen are not partly clogged with sand and drift wood. 
In this experiment, the solutions of sugar, sodium sulphate, 
magnesium sulphate, and sodium chloride were so made as 
to have the same osmotic pressure, and it will be seen from 





Amount of Water 


Absorbed by 


Wheat from 


Sa/t Solutions. 








Solution of 




o 

4J 

c 
1, 

o . 
-i-i 


en w 
in 

£ p 
s-* • 

*-* ~'— 

O <v> V 


Per Cent Water Absorbed by Wheat. 




u 

3 
O 
X 


en 
U 

3 
O 

X 


91 


X 


01 

u 
3 
O 

X 


in 

3 


X 


CO 

l- 
3 
O 
X 


. 

in 

I* 

3 
O 

X 


in 

% 

X 


3 

% 


in 

3 
O 

X 


in 

u 
3 
O 

X 


in 
u 

P 
O 
X 


6 








S 3 "p. 
° 




-t 




■x. 


2 




X 




— 

T-. 


e 


-> 

1 — 


1— 1 


1- 










331 


420 
432 


492 


516 546 

1 


557 

552 
547 


563 


001 601 


017 
614 


623 
620 


623 


2 


Sugir 


1.4:3 

.34 


1 


33,4 


493 513 543 


582 598,008 
567 577 590 


617 


4 






1 314401403 


493 


521 


606 608 


602 


Ci 


Sodium sulphate 




.24 1 321|416!478 


488 


532 


544 


577 583 001 


619 617 


007 


s . 


' 




.12 


1 340 419 
10 203-279 


495 
418 


500 
442 


518 
450 


537 

4(50 
409 


569 
467 


579 583 

478 481 


591 593 



481 481 
4S9 4S7 


603 


3 




14.30 


479 


5 


Magnesium sulphate . . . 




3 94 


10 :312'384433 


455,459 


479 489 489 


487 


t . 


Sodium sulphate 




2 60 10 297J383 430:440 451 


459 


463 479 483 


486 483 


492 


10 . 


Sodium chloride 




139 10 3153971443 449 400 

III: 


470 '472 472 470 

1 l 


474 482 : 500 



VlkaU Studies, IT. 43 



the table that the wheat absorbed just about the same 
amount of water from each of these in the same length of 
time. Sodium carbonate ("black alkali") acts differently, 

for when i1 is strong it a I hicks and dost rovs I he seeds 1 hem 

selves. Some seeds. ioo. give quite different results. Beans 
absorb the same amount of water when put into ;i saturated 
solution of common salt ;is they do when put into pure wa- 
ter. The dissolved salt apparently passes into the bean ;is 
readily as the water and destroys iis power of germination. 
Rye is intermediate between wheat and beans in this in- 
spect. 

To decide (lie question whether the absorption of water 
is physical or physiological, comparative tests were made 
between living seeds, and seeds in which the power of ger- 
mination had been destroyed by age, heat, or exposure t<» 
formaldehyde vapor. No difference between tin 1 living and 
dead seeds has been yet observed, so it appears that water 
is drawn into the seed purely by such physical forces as sur- 
face tension and osmotic pressure. It does not appear that 
the salts mentioned, except sodium carbonate, exert any 
poisonous influence on the wheat. It germinates readily 
when removed from the alkali solutions and put under fa- 
vorable conditions. 

The absorption of water is retarded and diminished by 
the presence of salts in the water, but not prevented. This 
is due to the fact that the seed allows the salt to pass into it 
though not so readily as the water. The volume of the 
swelled seed and the amount of salt they contain has been 
determined and it appears that in strong solutions enough 
salt is absorbed to make the solution inside the seed nearly 
the same strength as that outside. In this way the resist 
ance to absorption of water due to osmotic pressure is di- 
minished. The same means of obtaining water from a si rong 
salt solution is probably used by such plants as the salt sage, 
which contains a large amount of mineral salts. This has 



44 Wyoming Experiment Station. 

the double advantage of aiding the plant to draw water 
from the soil and to keep better what water it has, because 
the salts dissolved in the sap lessen the evaporation. 

The experimental work here outlined is being applied 
to plants as well as seeds, with the hope of finding out why 
it is that crtain plants thrive in soil containing much alkali 
and little water, while others, sometimes of the same genus, 
will die under these conditions. Experiments on low forms 
of life show that they can be made immune to the deleteri- 
ous effects of a very great osmotic pressure by slow changes 
and selection, and this suggests .the possibility that the 
same can be done for higher plants, and useful vegetation be 
grown to cover the acres now given over to greasewood or 
samphire. 



Alkali Investigations. 



B. C. BUFFUM. 



FIELD EXPERIMENTS. 

The experiments or lines of investigation under way in 
the field were outlined in Bulletin No. 29 of this station. 
While it can not be said that any of this w r ork has been com- 
pleted, some results have been obtained which are of inter- 
est. The productive area of the Station Farm is continually 
being encroached upon by the rise of alkali salts on the lower 
parts of the land. At the same time the greatest care has 
been exercised in our irrigation. It can not be laid to over- 
irrigation, or the careless handling of the water used. We 
know of no way to effectually prevent the accumulation of 
alkali salts upon low lands which have no drainage outlet. 
It is possible to irrigate land which has considerable slope 
without allowing any appreciable amount of waste water to 
escape, but, unless the land is level, some of the water finds 
its way through the soil or subsoil down the slope, carrying 
a quantity of the soluble salts with it. If there is good drain- 
age the salts are washed out of the soil into streams and 
carried off. Where there is no outlet of this kind a reservoir 
is formed in which the salts accumulate just as water col- 
lects in a lake bed. As more of the salts are washed from the 
higher ground the accumulation increases and more land is 
added to the unproductive alkali waste. 

Where the process of leaching has not begun the salts 
naturally occur distributed through the soil in compara- 



46 Wyoming Experiment Station. 

tively small quantities. Small amounts of these salts are 
beneficial, either acting directly as plant food or indirectly 
aiding in the process of plant nutrition. The fact that the 
soluble portion of our soils has not been leached out and 
carried away by excessive rainfall accounts for such lands 
being almost if not quite as rich and lasting as the soils along 
the Nile, which receive an annual supply of teachings and 
sediment from the head waters of that stream. However, 
when our lauds are brought under irrigation and cultivation 
there seems to be no way of keeping the soluble salts scat- 
tered through the soil as they were originally. When water 
is applied they move downward. By the percolation of water 
through the soil, the salts are carried from one place to an- 
other, accumulating where the water accumulates. When 
the water evaporates from the surface the salts in solution 
are left behind and more water coming up from below con- 
tinually adds its freight of salts, leaving them where they 
can do the most damage to crops. This simple principle of 
the movements of alkali salts in the soil along with the water 
furnishes the kev to any preventive treatment which must 
be along one of the folloAving lines: 

1. Irrigation 'with water free from salts. 

2. Preventing seepage. 

3. Draining the water from below. 

4. Cultivating or treating the surface in such a way as 
to prevent evaporation, which brings the salt to the surface. 

Over-irrigation and the lack of most intelligent and 
thoughtful management brings about rapid and wide-spread 
destruction of the most fetile lands. Good natural or arti- 
ficial drainage will enable the farmer who properly crops, 
cultivates, and irrigates his land to prevent any damage 
from alkali, providing the water with which he irrigates 
does not bring large amounts of salts to his soil.* But there 
are places without good, natural drainage where artificial 

*For data of the amount of alkali salts actually deposited upon some soils from the water 
used in irrigation, see Wyoming Station Bulletin No. 24, " Water Analyses.") 



Alkali Studies, 11. 47 



drainage will be too expensive for years to come and where 
alkali is accumulating more or less rapidly. As yet the 
farmer has no market for his crop of salts and unless he can 
so treat the land that it will bring some return he is better 
off without the useless acres upon which the taxes are the 
same as upon the rest of the farm. 

All this discussion leads up to the point I wish to make. 
Although we may know of no easy or cheap method of re- 
claiming such lands so all crops will thrive upon them we 
may make them productive by introducing plants which will 
grow in the presence of large amounts of alkali salts. Pro- 
fessor Hilgard has accomplished a great deal in introducing 
alkali resisting plants to cultivation in California. We have 
been experimenting with such plants for some time and are 
now able to report upon a few of them. 

We have found very few useful plants which will grow 
w T here the soil contains so much alkali that an incrustation 
is formed on the surface. Incrustation of our ordinary white 
alkali on the surface is usually marked, at least during dry 
weather, where there is as much as one and one half or two 
percent of salts in the first two inches of soil. Such an 
amount of salts will prevent the growth of any of the cereals 
or of alfalfa. Barley and rye seem to stand more alkali than 
will wheat or oats. I believe barley, rye, or alfalfa will grow 
in the presence of as much as one percent of our ordinary 
white alkali, (sulphates of soda and magnesia), in two inches 
of surface soil, providing the water level is not nearer the 
surface than two or three feet. Usually where there is so 
much alkali as this, which has accumulated from irrigation 
above, the water comes near the surface, leaving the soil 
saturated most of the time. Where this occurs less than one- 
half of one percent of salt along with the water is fatal to 
such crops. Upon soils containing about two percent of 
salts in the first two inches we have tried, without success, 
rye, wheat, barley, oats, alfalfa, and Russian sunflowers. 



48 Wyoming Experiment Station. 

Bronie grass and red top have been partially successful. Our 
experiments with them have not been extensive enough to 
reach final conclusions. 

The following alkali-resisting plants need special men- 
tion. 

SALT SAGES OR SALT BUSHES (Species of Atriplex). 

Just now many enterprising seedsmen are advertising 
the "Australian Salt Bush, 1 ' (Atriplex semibaccatum), urging 
farmers to purchase the seed for sowing upon their alkali 
lands. It has been very successful in California, where it 
produces large yields of forage. However, it is a warm 
climate plant and does not succeed in Wyoming. We have 
given it careful trials at Laramie, Lander, and Sheridan. At 
Laramie it only made a small growth the first season. At 
Sheridan its growth was thrifty the first summer. The 
Superintendent of the Sheridan Farm, Mr. Lewis, stated that 
he had difficulty saving the plants from destruction by what 
he called "the common beet bug," or "the long gray potato 
bug."* By a liberal use of Paris green, the insects were de- 
stroyed. The plants made a spreading growth, almost cover- 
ing the ground by the time of frost. None of the plants lived 
through the winter at any of the places they were tried. 

There are .a number of species of atriplex, closely related 
to the Australian Salt Bush, found native in the State, which 
grow in alkali lands. Some of them are of much importance 
as forage plants. The more promising of these are being 
studied by our Botanist, who is co-operating with this de- 
partment in attempting to introduce them into cultivation 
and determine their value for wider distribution. f 

*This insect is one of the Blister Beetles {Epicauta sj> ?). It has done considerable dam- 
age to beets and potatoes in parts of the state, especially in Sheridan and Crook counties. 

fA valuable contribuHon to our knowledge of the forage plants which grow in the 
alkali soils of our state is contained in Bulletin No. 13 of the Division of Agrostology of the 
United States Department of Agriculture, entitled "The Red Desert of Wyoming and Its For- 
age Resources," written by Professor Aven Nelson of this Station. In this bulletin the salt 
sages and other plants found growing in alkali places are discussed, with data relating to their 
value as food for range stock and suggestions as to usefulness of certain species if brought under 
cultivation. 



Alkali Studies, II. 49 



Plants of this character, which take up large amounts of 
the alkali salts, will naturally aid in removing the salt from 
the soil with the crop. Stockmen have long appreciated this 
property of the salt sage, regularly making use of it as food 
for their range stock, to avoid the necessity of purchasing 
common salt for them. 

ENGLISH RAPE. 

Dwarf Essex Rape was planted upon the Experiment 
Farm two seasons, being sown upon strong alkali soil which 
would not produce grain or alfalfa. In 1894 a rather thin 
stand was obtained. The soil was very damp all summer. 
About the first week in August the rape began to make a 
rank growth. When cut on September 3 it yielded at the 
rate of a little over fourteen and one-half tons of green fod- 
der per acre. In 1896 rape planted on strong alkali ground 
also made excellent growth. Rape is attracting much atten- 
tion as a soiling crop or as forage, especially for sheep. 
While it is an annual plant it may prove of value upon alkali 
soils in the state. 

BOKHARA OR WHITE SWEET CLOVER. 

(Melilotus alba.) 
At Laramie and at Sheridan sweet clover has made large 
growth upon strong alkali soils. Unfortunately it seems to 
be of little or no value unless it be as a honey plant for bees, 
though I have been told it is cut and baled for cattle food in 
parts of Utah. Heretofore I have warned our farmers not 
to plant this clover on account of its spreading to places 
where not wanted and becoming a troblesome weed, where 
allowed to ripen its seed.* Recent experiments indicate that 
it may be of some value for alkali land, to improve the soil 
before planting other crops. In 1897 an alkali plat was 

*See Wyoming Station Bulletin No. 16, page 236. In this connection Professor Hilgard 
has told me that in California, where sweet clover became a weed in wheat fields, millers refused 
to buy the wheat, as it became tainted with the strong, peculiar odor of the clover seed and com- 
plaint was made that the flour from such wheat made gingerbread. If planted for any purpose it 
should not be allowed to spread, but all plants should be cut when in bloom to prevent the pro- 
duction of seed. It is a biennial, producing its seed the second year and then dying. 



50 Wyoming Experiment Station. 



planted to sweet clover. This season, 1898, at the time it was 
in blossom it had produced 18.4 tons of green tops per acre, 
and was plowed under for green manure. The average 
height of the plants was 5.2 feet and computed as dry hay 
the yield was over four and one-half tons per acre. It was 
difficult to plow under so large a crop. Like other legumin- 
ous crops this clover takes nitrogen from the air by means of 
the little tubercles on the roots. The roots of those plants 
which we examined were literally covered with these tuber- 
cles, which indicates that sweet clover may prove of value as 
-a nitrifying agent. Adding nitrogen to the soil by the roots, 
combined with plowing under the rank growth of tops to im- 
prove the soil tilth and add humus, it is believed will make 
the land much more productive. 

SUGAR BEETS. 

Sugar beets thrive well upon soils strongly impreg- 
nated with alkali salts. It is claimed that excess of chlorides 
in the soil upon which beets are grown, seriously interferes 
with the crystallization of the sugar in the process of manu- 
facture. This would give no trouble here as only small 
amounts of chlorides are present and the sulphates do not 
have the same effect. 

As yet we have no sugar factories, but the beets are in- 
valuable as stock food.* Where fattening stock or milch 
cows are to be fed during the winter, it will pay to raise 
sugar beets to mix with other food. The beets may be raised 
upon the alkali part of the farm, but in order to produce 
large yields the land should be fertilized the same as any 
other soil upon which beets are to be grown. 

In 1897 and 1898 we grew sugar beets upon soil practi- 
cally free from alkali, and upon soil containing so much al- 
kali that ordinary crops would not grow. The composi- 
tion of the alkali as shown by analysis made by Mr. 

*See Wyoming Station Bulletin No. 30, " Stock Feeding at Lander." 



Alkali Studies, II. 



5* 



Fairfield in the spring of 1897 was Sodium and Potassium 
Chlorides 14.39%, Sodum Sulphate 50.16%,. Magnesium Sul- 
phate 20.03%, and Calcium Sulphate 15.41%. (Bulletin No. 
29, p. 228). The soil was not fertilized in either case and the 
yield was much larger on the alkali soil. In 1897 the beets 
were analyzed by the TJ. S. Department of Agriculture, show- 
ing a large percent of sugar and high purity. The results are 
given in the following table: 

Sugar Beets at Laramie. 



Year. 


Kind of Land. 


Yield 
Per Acre, 
Pounds. 


Sugar in 

tieet. 
Perrent. 


Purity 


1897 


{ 


Without alkali 
Strong alkali 

Without alkali 
Strong alka'i 


11,643 
14,486 

5,985 
12,632 


19.0 
19.7 


89.2 

88.1 




j 








17.5 




/ 





RECLAMATION OF ALKALI SOILS. 

The old saying that "an ounce of prevention is worth a 
pound of cure" is in place here. While it may be impossible 
to prevent the accumulation and rise of alkali on certain 
portions of the farm, by taking the matter in hand early 
the time of land becoming unproductive may often be almost 
indefinitely posponed. The low ground where it is expected 
alkali will first come to the surface should be kept in some 
crop, as alfalfa, which will shade the ground the greater 
part of the time, or planted to such crops as can be thor- 
oughly cultivated to loosen the surface and prevent evapora- 
tion. 

The only experiments we have made in reclaiming have 
been by open ditch draining at Sheridan. In the summer of 
1895 one hundred and fifty rods of open ditch were dug to 
drain about ten acres of the north-west corner of the farm. 
The soil of the farm is underlaid with hardpan and the leach- 
ings of alkali from the higher land followed along this hard- 
pan to the lowest part, where the salts came to the surface. 



52 Wyoming Experiment Station. 

A part of the time the water level was as high as, or above 
the surface of the ground, and so much alkali collected there 
, that even weeds which ordinarily thrive in the presence of 
such salts would not grow. In 1896, one hundred and twenty 
rods of additional ditch, two feet deep, was dug. The follow- 
ing extracts from the annual reports of Superintendent 
Lewis since 1895 indicate with what success the ditches have 
aided in reclaiming the land. 

Extract from Report of 1895: "Our one hundred and 
fifty rods of ditch made during the summer will, I think, 
prove a great benefit to the alkali land. The water does not 
stand on the surface as it did." 

Report of 1896: "Have made one hundred and twenty 
rods of new ditch, connecting with ditch made during 1895, 
which is doing much good in reclaiming the alkali land." 

Report of 1897: "I consider our experiment with drain 
ditches has done and will do a great amount of good in re- 
claiming the land. Land that has been a white, smooth 
alkali bed for the last three Aears is now all covered with a 
heavy growth of weeds and grass, there being but little 
alkali which is apparent to the passer-by." 



EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT ALKALI SALTS ON 
SEED GERMINATION. 

As a continuance of the laboratory work on seed ger- 
mination begun in 1896 and reported in Bulletin No. 29, Mr. 
W. H. Fairfield planned and carried out quite an extensive 
experiment to show the comparative effects of the different 
alkali salts. The credit for this experiment, the careful man- 
ner in which it was carried out and the full notes and tabula- 



tions of the results belong wholly to Mr. Fairfield, a large 
part of whose time was devoted to an enthusiastic study of 
the matter in hand. The experiment was finished in March 
of the present year and resulted in data of much interest and 



Alkali studies, II. 53 

value. In order to substantiate the results obtained, a part 
of the experiment was repeated in November to check the 
results by bringing the seeds into contact with the alkali so- 
lutions in a different way. The general results of the check 
are so close to those in the original investigation that they 
lead to the same conclusions. 

It is not our purpose here to make a full report of the 
experiment or a technical discussion of the results. There 
are some points of interest and value to the general reader, 
however, which we wish to note briefly. It is expected the 
full report of the work with diagrams and tables will be pub- 
lished in the annual report. 

Seeds of wheat and rye were germinated in pure water 
and in solutions of carbonate of soda (black alkali), chloride 
of soda (common salt), sulphate of soda (glauber salt), sul- 
phate of magnesia (epsom salt), and in sugar syrups the 
strength of which varied in the same percents as those of the 
salts used. Each of the salts used and the sugar were ap- 
plied to the seeds in strengths of one tenth of one percent, 
four tenths of one percent, seven tenths of one percent, one, 
two, three, four, five, seven, and nine percent solutions. The 
sugar was used to throw light upon a technical point, which 
had been suggested by Professor Slosson, whether the re- 
tarding effect was due to the osmotic pressures exerted by 
the different salt solutions. The experiments show that this 
is the case and the fact throws much light upon the manner 
in which the injury to seed germination or plant growth 
takes place. 

In these experiments it has been a most notable fact that 
small amounts of alkali salts are beneficial or at least that 
they accelerate instead of retard germination. No doubt 
small amounts present in the soil also assist in the life of the 
plant, either stimulating its growth or acting directly as 
plant food. 



54 



Wyoming Experiment Station. 



The following table show 7 s the amount of salts w T hich 
may be present without retarding the germination of wiieat 
and r}-e seeds. It is true that larger amounts than this, wmile 
they retarded the germination the first few days, caused the 
seed to germinate even faster than they did in water, after 
the third to the fifth day, but in each case the total number 
of seeds which would germinate was less than where no salt 
was present. 





Magnesium Sulphate. 


Sodium Sulphate. 


Sodium Chloiide. 


Sodium Carbonate. 




In 
Solution. 


In Soil. 


In 
Solution. 

0.7 

! 0.7 


In Soil. 

6 17 
0.17 


In 

Solution. 


In Soil. 


In 
Solution. 

0.4 
0.1 


In Soil. 


Wheat.. . 
Rye . . . 


10 
1.0 


0.25 
0.25 


04 
0.4 


0.1 
0.1 


0.1 
0.02 



The salts are injurious in the order they are given in 
this table. The black alkali (sodium carbonate) is much 
more injurious than the other salts, because it has a corrod- 
ing effect due to the fact that it is not a neutral salt and free 
acid is present to produce a share of the damage. Of the 
salts composing our common white alkali magnesium sul- 
phate seems to be the least injurious, while common salt 
(sodium chloride) is most injurious. Fortunately there is 
very little sodium cloride associated with the sulphates of 
soda and magnesia in our alkali. It should be explained that 
the percent of salt in solution and the percent in the soil may 
be very different under natural conditions. For example, 
there may be a large amount of dry salt present. Unless it 
is in solution it cannot effect the plant for the dry crystals 
cannot enter the seed or plant and must remain inert until, 
in the presence of water, they are dissolved. The percent of 
salt in the soil gh r en above is estimated upon the basis of 
24.5% of moisture being present. Thus, if there was 
2.20% of salt in the soil, if 24.5% of moisture were present 
and dissolved all of this salt there would be a nine percent 
solution of salt to produce its effect upon the seed or plant. 



Alkali Studies, II. 55 



It has been found that fewer seeds will live and it takes 
longer for them to germinate as the strength of the solution 
increases and there is a marked difference between the dif- 
ferent salts. 

Eighty-eight percent of the seeds of wheat germinated 
in water. In three percent solutions of the salts, amounting 
to nearly three-fourths of one percent of salt in the soil the 
following percent of the wheat, was germinated: Mag- 
nesium sulphate, 86%, sodium sulphate 70%, sodium chloride 
35%, sodium carbonate 14%. Ninety-six percent of the rye 
germinated in water. In three percent solutions of the salts 
the following percent of rye germinated: Magnesium sul- 
phate 92%, sodium sulphate 56%, sodium chloride 38%, sodi- 
um carbonate 22%. This would indicate that rye will stand 
stronger alkali than will wheat, which corresponds with our 
results published in Bulletin No. 29. 

In addition to the tests upon seed germination quite an 
extensive experiment was conducted with alkali in pots. 
Because of conditions which it was difficult to control, we 
were not able to draw conclusions which would be authentic 
regarding the effect of these salts upon the plant growth, 
but the effect of the salt solutions upon the evaporation of 
water from soil is of interest. That alkali salts have an ap- 
preciable effect upon the character of the soil (especially so 
in the case of black alkali) was long ago pointed out by Pro- 
fessor Hilgard. Everyone who has given any attention to 
alkali soils has probably noticed that they appear damp, 
when adjoining lands may seem perfectly dry. In the fol- 
lowing table the number of cubic centimeters of water evap- 
orated each day from pots of the same size and containing 
the same amount of soil, are given. The amounts given are 
averages of the amounts of water added each day for the 
first ten days to take place of that lost by evaporation. For 
the first ten days there were no plants in the pots to tran- 



56 



Wyoming Experiment Station. 



spire water and change the result. There are many irregu- 
larities in the table, probably due to difference in the pots 
themselves, but the general result is the same. From the 
pots containing no alkali 17.7 c. c. were evaporated each 
day, while the amounts of water lost from those pots con- 
taining 9 % solutions (equivalent to 2.2% alkali in soil with 
24.5% moisture) was approximately one half as much. 
Influence of Alkali Salts jon Evaporation of Water from Pots. 

c. c. of water evaporated per day. 



SALT. 



Water lost in c c. . . . 
Sodium Carbonate.. . 
Sodium Chloride.. ■ • 
Sodium Sulphate. . . . 
Magnesium Sulphate. . 
Sugar 



Per- 


Per- 


Per. 


Per- 


Per- 


Per- 


Per- 


Per- 


Pej- 


Per- 


cent. 


cent. 


cent. 


cent. 


cent. 


cent. 


cent. 


cent. 


cenf 


cent. 




c. c. 
17.7 
17.7 


0.1 

c. c. 


0.4 

c. c. 


0.7 

c. c. 


1.0 


2.0 


3.0 

c. c. 


4.0 

c. c. 


5.0 
c. c. 


7.0 
c. c. 


c. c. 


c. c. 


17.5 


14.7 


13.8 


12.1 


12.6 


13.1 


*8.2 


10.3 


104 


17.7 


15.4 


14.1 


14.0 


12.3 


109 


9.7 


9.5 


7.9 


8.9 


17.7 


18.1 


15.0 


10.7 


KV.9 


12.5 


10.9 


73 


8.2 


101 


17.7 


17.4 


13.1 


11.4 


131 


11.4 


9.2 


11.3 


8.4 


8.2 


17.7 


11.1 


15.4 


13.6 


12,9 


12.4 


10.2 


10.1 


9.7 


9.4 



Per- 
cent. 
9.0 

c. c. 

*S.5 
8.5 
9.6 
65 
8.8 



*Average tor 9 days. 



LIBRAHY OF CONGRESS 




